


Instruction 101

by Cloud_Lightning



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-08
Updated: 2018-09-08
Packaged: 2019-07-08 13:08:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15931082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cloud_Lightning/pseuds/Cloud_Lightning
Summary: “This isn’t an instruction. This is a request from a friend to another friend to take care of their friend.”





	Instruction 101

**Author's Note:**

> im hella late to this fandom, but hei, better late than never

Look, she would be a liar if she said she doesn’t a tiny little bit jealous of Troy when they found out that Pierce gave his remaining share in the Hawthorne Wipes Company. Well granted, Pierce gave her a tiara but it felt wrong to sell this. In his own twisted way, Annie believed that Pierce might actually know more about her, about all of them, than he ever let on. So she just got to believe that everything will turn out great.

“So, that’s it?” Jeff asked as he touched the packaged of the Scotch. “No more weird or inappropriate questions?”

“Yes,” the lawyer nodded. “That’s all. And also, I need to remind you to never throw away the sperm, or you have to return everything to me.”

The group groaned collectively.

“Well, I guess we could combine all of the sperm and put it somewhere that will never see the light of the day?” Jeff once again said.

“You can’t do that either.”

Jeff groaned.

“Jeff, why are you being so mean?” Annie finally piped up. “Pierce is already dead, and the least we can do is to honor his last wish,” she eyed the energon pod in front of her wary. “Even if it is kinda eccentric.”

“If you rich, you’re eccentric, but if you’re poor, you’re crazy,” Britta exhaled.

“Yes well, money is everything,” Jeff sassed.

“Oh, speaking of money,” Mr. Stone fixed his tie. “Why don’t we go out to drink and celebrate this?!”

Troy gasped when Mr. Stone slapped his back hard.

“Seriously, you just finished reading your client’s will and you asked us to have a drink with you?” Jeff raised his eyebrow.

“Trust me, you guys are the first that actually finish hearing the will until the end.”

“How many Pierce-like clients do you have?” Shirley asked.

“No, I mean just in Mr. Hawthorne’s case. The man married seven different women and he gathered them all in one place, and called each member of his family based on the hotness of the mother.”

“Ewwwww.”

Yeah, they can totally imagine that kind of thing could lead to destruction or two. And that was so Pierce, honestly even after he died he kept doing this kind of thing huh.

“So, how about it? Let’s drink, alright!” Mr. Stone raised his fist.

“Well, I did just get a buttload of money,” Troy smirked.

“Troy, you do realize that you have to sail all over the world first before you get the money, right?” Britta and Jeff asked at the same time.

Troy dropped his smirk and slouch in the chair. “Yeah, I know that.”

“My treat!” Mr. Stone said. “I’m really happy because there’s no vase flying to my way.”

“What?”

“I’ll tell you on the way,” Mr. Stone got up and leaves.

“So, we don’t have to follow him, right?” Annie asked.

“We didn’t sign the paper yet,” Jeff said. “We have to follow him.”

Jeff already on his way out.

“Wait, what paper?”

The group hurriedly went after Jeff, leaving Annie and Troy behind.

Both of them looked at each other and smiled softly.

“Well, we better go or I’ll lose my only chance to become a real captain,” Troy picked up Pierce’ energon pod.

Annie nodded her head.

Both of them looked over the study one last time before Annie turned off the lamp and locked the door.

 

* * *

 

 

“Oh come on, I was about to study here!” A woman wearing a leather jacket yelled as she tried to pull the door of the Study Room. “I already filled out the paper properly!”

“Nothing is proper here in Greendale,” Leonard said, making the woman sighed.

 

* * *

 

 

After they managed to ditch Mr. Stone, they decided to go to Troy/Abed/Annie’s place, Jeff even brought pizzas for them. They watched movies about sailing, from the good one, the bad one, the really good one, really bad, masterpiece, and honestly why anyone would give the producer money to make a movie this bad kind of thing movie. Britta was really polite and doesn’t make any analysis about the effect on Troy’s leave to Abed’s behavior, maybe because Jeff told her a secret as a payment to keep her mouth shut and actually enjoy the movie for once.

It was getting late; the group doesn’t really want to leave. But then lives gets in the way so they were forced to go back to their own place. Jeff just got a call from his landlord that the Dean was trying to break into Jeff’s place by climbing through the window, but he failed and fell. One of Britta’s cat escaped from her place and went to the neighbor’s place, and Shirley, well, at first they were going to let Shirley stay with them but she politely refused and said that she wanted to sleep earlier.

Annie knew that it means Shirley was going to bake-sleep herself (Annie doesn’t really know whether it was really a word or not, but she let Shirley said that. And also it means Shirley was going to bake until she tired herself out and probably pass out on the kitchen floor again).

Now it was just Troy, Abed, and Annie.

Abed was currently trying to find the perfect movie for Troy, and maybe a little more realistic and slightly angsty.

“This place will be different without you,” Annie said as she washed the plate.

“Well, shaaash,” Troy said. “I won’t be here, so of course it will be different,” Troy laughed, throwing another can of beer into the garbage.

“Troy…”

The smiled on Troy’s face was gone the moment he saw Annie’s body quivering. “Oh, Annie, I’m sorry, I’m just…” Troy hugged Annie. “Look, I may be out there in the open sea, but we can still contact each other. Not that I’m out of space or something.”

“Promise?” Annie used the back of her hand to wipe her tears.

“I’ll try,” Troy said.

No one said anything as Annie snuggled deeply into Troy.

“Oh, before I forget!” Troy pulled back to open the fridge, and then he took something from the freezer.

“Isn’t that the box that I’m not allowed to touch?” Annie raised her eyebrow.

“Yes,” Troy said. He showed Annie the cover of the box. ‘Instruction 101’.

“What is instruction 101?”

“I was trying to come up with something cool,” Troy explained. “But this was all I got and it only made it sound weird rather than cool.”

“Troy, what is it?”

“Inside this box, there’s a key that can open my fancy box, the one I got from my Nana?”

Annie nodded, she knew which one.

“Now, I want you to listen carefully.”

“Troy, you’re making me scared,” Annie pulled back when Troy tried to whisper into her ear.

“Ok, ok, I’m sorry,” Troy pulled back. “The truth is, I love Abed.”

Annie cooed. “Troy, we know, I know, and it’s okay.”

“Yes, I know it’s okay, I’m just saying the truth.”

“Ok, so what do you want me to do with this key and the box?”

“Inside that box, there’s a note about Abed,” Troy said softly. “What’s his likes, dislikes, what you should do if the Dreamatorium is broken, everything you need to know about Abed.”

If Troy gave this to her many times ago, she would roll her eyes and said that she spent a really long time with the two of them, so she knew a thing or two about them. But today, Troy was going to sail around the world, and there was no way she could reach him out if something happens to Abed and she didn’t know what to do. So, Annie took the box from Troy’s hands.

“I will treasure this treasure,” Annie smiled, Troy snorted just a little.

“But I want you to know,” Troy said. “This is not some kind of obligation or something.”

“Right, of course.”

“This isn’t an instruction; this is me being your friend asking you to take care of our mutual friend.”

“I know.”

“Also, it’s not me thinking that you’re not capable enough or that I think Abed is…”

“Troy,” Annie put her hand on Troy’s shoulder. “I know and it’s okay.”

Both of them smiled.

“Also, thank you, for trusting something important to me.”

“You and Abed are important for me,” Troy gave her his famous half smile.

“Okay, I found it!” Abed yelled.

Troy and Annie were smiling at each other before Troy yelled back.

“Just please tell me this one didn’t have any tornado.”

“Can we watch a pirate movie now?” Annie whined. “I want to watch Keira Knightly.”

Both of them said as they walked out of the kitchen.

 

* * *

 

 

The thought just occurred to her when the three of them arrived at Greendale. Everybody was saying goodbye to Troy, and it felt familiar, in a way. It was like that moment when Troy got his football scholarship and everyone at their school were celebrating it. At that time, Annie was only able to see from a distance, too afraid to come up to Troy and congratulating him in person.

But now, Annie was standing next to Troy, sometimes Troy even using Annie as his shield and reason to get away from people when things get too uncomfortable for him. Not that Troy didn’t like goodbyes, well actually he really didn’t like it. Saying goodbye made him sad and made him doesn’t want to leave, and he needed to leave in order to get the money and become a captain at the open sea.

After they lived together, no, even way before that, Annie’s feeling for Troy was changing. She was no longer an awestruck school girl every time she saw Troy. They were friends, close friends. Honestly, Annie already lost count on how many times she saw Troy just wearing his boxer, and how many times she let Troy inside her room.

The Dean came, of course, he read about the news and kind off passive-aggressive asked Troy to donate half of his money to Greendale.

Troy being Troy, he just smiled and said. “Well, I have to sail the seven seas first.”

“We know you can do it, buddy,” Jeff smiled proudly.

Chang said that he will miss Troy since Troy was always helping him to get out from the air vent every time he stuck there, and also because Troy can fix the air conditioning.

Is this how parents’ feeling when they saw their child leave? But then Annie was not Troy’s parents, so that didn’t work.

“All I ever wanted in high school was for Troy Barnes to notice me,” Annie said when Troy stood in front of her. They were already at the point where they could talk freely about Annie’s crush on Troy in the past. Not to mock her, just to say ‘yeah I had a crush on you, and didn’t work well. But we’re pretty awesome friend’ kind of thing. “And then I ended up living with you.”

“I'm pretty lucky,” Annie said.

“I'm not,” Troy said. “I had a chance to be your friend in high school, but I was busy trying to be cool.”

Annie was already having a hard time to keep herself from crying, and now Troy said this.

“I missed out on four more years of Annie.”

Annie finally cried and pulled Troy into a hug.

**Author's Note:**

> im at nightwhite13 on tumblr if you wanna say hi


End file.
